SHEPPARD, EUGENIA

(1903-1984)

Born in Columbus, Ohio, to a banker/food broker father, she attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She began writing a women's column for theColumbus Dispatch, which was owned by her second husband's father, H. P. Wolfe. After her divorce in 1937, Sheppard moved to New York and began writing forWWD. In 1938, she landed a job at theNew York Herald-Tribuneas assistant editor of the women's page. By 1947, she was theTribuneSfashion editor and created journalistic history when she combined fashion reportage and New York gossip with pictures of society's most fashionable. In 1956, Sheppard's syndicated column "Inside Fashion" appeared in one hundred newspapers around the country, making her one of the most powerful fashion columnists in the country. Covering the European collections withfashion illustratorJoe Eula in tow, together they would go head-to-head againstWWD, their biggest competitor. Sheppard's pen was so mighty that she was actually banned from the showrooms of designersCristobal Balenciaga,Yves Saint Laurent, andHubert de Givenchyfor writing unfavorable reviews of their collections. In collaboration with Earl Blackwell, Sheppard wrote two books,Crystal Clear(1978) andSkyrocket(1980). Sheppard's career spanned more than forty years and, in her memory, theCouncil of Fashion Designers of Americaeach year presents the Eugenia Sheppard Award to a deservingfashion journalist.